SKF NOTE: As a kid, I always loved The Kinks’s music. Their rockers as well as their ballads. And I owned several Kinks albums, from their first LP to either Arthur or Muswell Hillbillies. Then my limited funds were spent more and more on jazz and blues albums.

But a few years ago I heard Ray Davies’s solo album, Working Man’s Cafe, on the radio, liked the songs very much, and starting buying and listening again to his solo albums, and reading his autobiography, Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story.

Here’s a publicity shot of The Kinks (1982) for their Give The People What They Want album. The three original band members in this photo are, L-to-R, Dave Davies, Ray Davies, and drummer Mick Avory. Keyboardist Ian Gibbons is next, followed by bassist Jim Rodford.